“Kayla, don’t—” Shane starts to say.
But it’s too late. Kayla has turned around, and she’s running in the other direction down the poorly paved path to the farmhouse, the rainwater reaching up above her ankles like she’s wading through a shallow stream. Presumably, she’d thought she wouldn’t be outdoors much during this sleepover, so she’s wearing a pair of chunky heels with what had once been a stylish leather trench coat before the rain destroyed it. My coat and sneakers aren’t much better, but I’m still tempted to follow her.
She makes it barely twenty feet. I don’t know if her foot catches on something, but she takes a quick nosedive into the muddy water on the ground. Tim swears loudly, then races out after her.
“Look at Prince Charming go,” Chelsea mutters under her breath.
I shoot her a look. “What? You think he shouldn’t help her?”
Chelsea doesn’t answer—she just takes a ragged breath. Like Kayla, her makeup has run all over her face, making her appear almost maniacal. I’m glad I only wore lipstick tonight, which largely rubbed off when Shane and I were kissing.
Kayla looks like she’s not going to let Tim help her at first, but she finally accepts his hand and allows him to pull her back to her feet. She casts a regretful glance at the road behind her, which is becoming more flooded with every passing second, and then follows Tim back to the farmhouse. It’s hard to tell if her face is damp from tears or the rain.
Shane is hovering at the front door and gives Kayla a once-over as she steps back onto the porch. “You okay?”
She glares at him but doesn’t say a word.
“Let’s go inside,” Tim says. “At least it’ll be dry.”
With that declaration, I can’t help but notice how soaked he got while rescuing Kayla. We’re all soaked, actually. We look like a bunch of drowned rats. Kayla got the worst of it though, when she slipped in the mud. Her dark hair is plastered to her skull and her trench coat looks like it will need to be peeled off her skin. There are flecks of mud on her face, intermingled with her ruined makeup.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Kayla hisses at him. “Trap me in the house with no way out…”
“Hey…” Tim raises his hands. “I’m just saying… we don’t want to get sick out here…”
“Sick!” She casts a horrified look at Brandon’s body, still lying on the porch. “Someone is dead! And one of you did it! You had to have…”
“Kayla…” Tim takes a careful step toward her. “You need to calm down…”
“I’m not going to calm down!” She takes a step back, almost stumbling over her own heels. “I don’t trust any of you. So until the power comes back on, leave me the hell alone.”
With those words, Kayla runs back into the house. Her footsteps disappear up the stairs and the sound of one of the bedroom doors slamming echoes through the house.
Chapter 24
PRESENT DAY
The next morning, before I start my clinic, I make a trip to the infirmary to check on Shane.
While I’m walking down another long hallway of flickering lights, a voice from behind me calls out my name. I pause and turn around in time to see Marcus Hunt sprinting down the hallway in my direction.
Great. What now?
I hope he doesn’t start harassing me for dates. I can’t deal with that on top of everything else. One thing I can say for sure though is that I’m going to start carrying my pepper spray in my hand instead of leaving it in my purse while I walk out to my car. One good spritz of that stuff and he’ll know to leave me alone.